Dan Burton: “Get this: $16.3 billion has been authorized and appropriated for the former Soviet Union. That is $16,300,000,000 since…”

“Get this: $16.3 billion has been authorized and appropriated for the former Soviet Union. That is $16,300,000,000 since 1992 and 1993; $2.3 billion last year. $900 million this year. The gentleman from Wisconsin said, ``Well, it was $2.5 billion last year, we're going in the right direction, we reduced it to $900 million, and this is absolutely essential if we're going to have democracy and free enterprise in Russia.'' Mr. Chairman, we do not create free enterprise by giving people money. We create free enterprise by encouraging business and industry to go over there and teach them how free enterprise works, to create jobs through industrial growth. Mr. Chairman, we had an opportunity to do that last year. One of the most mineral-rich countries in the world is Russia and the former Soviet Union. They have every kind of mineral one can think of, that we have to have to survive as a Nation. In fact, 11 minerals that we have to have to survive as a Nation come from only two parts of the world, the southern part of Africa and Russia. We should have cut a business deal with them to buy things, to send industry over there to create jobs and to mine these products, these minerals, so that they will have ongoing economic growth and we will get something for our taxpayers' dollars, we will get something in return.”